In a taxi with desi immigrant uncle, jammin to some spanish/urdu qawwali flamenco from my phone. He invites me to listen to music to remove some of the rage & sadness from my face. ‘Abba listen to music it will make u happy’.
I mention how I hope it doesn’t rain, he tells me that it will always rain here, it is the sky weeping for the British governments sins. I smile at the poetry in his words. We talk brexit without talking about it. It feels to heavy but too be real this is the heaviness so many of us feel most days and aren’t able to speak of or even process because oppression preoccupies us with just surviving. Getting closer to my destination he says ‘do you want me to wait?’ I tell him i will be about an hour so it’s probably not a good idea. ‘Don’t worry I’m doing less hours during ramadan, i will wait for you. Its not a good area so i will bring you back.’ I refuse saying I don’t want him to lose a job when he could work. He laughs and says ‘I’m not charging you, it’s good for me to just be around . I want you to be safe’ .
In a world that constantly makes us unsafe, especially on days like this where we become more unsafe to white power. We know that they don’t love us, but we do know how to love each other and how to keep each other safe. Even in our clumsy, exhausted, naive, pain-filled, fumbling in the dark ways we have our quiet expressions of love and commitment to each other so we can sustain ourselves and each other. I make a commitment to remember this as we fight and commit to fighting on the front lines with each other. We will see each other on the front lines organising, resisting and loving. Jummah mubarak